
Gingko biloba trio in Mariemont Park, in Morlanwels-Mariemont (Belgium). Photo by Jean-Pol Grandmont, via Wikimedia Commons.
I was very happy to hear great news from dian today. She’s signed two book contracts in less than six weeks! Congratulations, dian! This is her favorite ode from her book of “odes to common plants,” honoring an ancient and beautiful tree that embodies romance, mystery, and magic for so many of us. ENJOY!
— S.K.
Ode to the Ginkgo Biloba tree and to her leaves
Now it comes to me that you fan-shaped leaves right in front of the Hermann’s house, in Brooklyn on New York Avenue next door to my old house cause we had a parking sign pole instead of a tree and there were those leaves now I know were from a Gingko Biloba tree—fell yellow. I didn’t know your name then or why your golden fall lobed leaves, like tiny Japanese paper fans, fell differently than the Giordano’s maple tree. Now feeling the fresh fall air just reminiscing about you. You are not like the maple, the sycamore, or the sweetgum tree. Thinking of always seeing you in yellow fall on the avenue with your parted cleavage scattering in sheer fall camisoles with one missed blouse button and though you are classy, you are from a street tree, a living fossil 350 million years old making you the oldest tree on earth from the era of dinosaurs. You are the earliest of my leaf-time memories of not thinking you were really a leaf. You Ms.—silver apricot—maidenhair tree, every leaf brings me right back to you.
— dian parrotta
Ginkgo biloba Fallen Leaves, taken at Tyler Arboretum, Media, Pennsylvania by Derek Ramsey, 2007 via Wikimedia Commons.
Dian is a proud alumnus from the State University of New York’s Stony Brook University which had taken her for the first time away from Brooklyn. She also holds an M.A.T degree from George Mason University and an MFA in Fiction Writing from Lindenwood University. She enjoys writing about the health benefits of eating delicious dandelions, broad-leaf plantain, purslane, garlic mustard, common nettle and the very tasty pigweed. She harvests words into odes that celebrate the common plants, trees, shrubs and roots. She does dream to retire from teaching after 30 years at a local high school within the next year or so to join her two sons, who are both living in Prague and in Madrid, Spain. She says she wouldn’t mind spending her retirement writing garden, flower and plant poems.
A very insightful poetess is this woman, Dian Parrotta. I have followed her work for decades, I believe she’s now arrived at her very best. Please keep writing! Truly.
I agree! Thank you for your comment, Marc!
I love Dian’s writing! I have been fortunate to know her for almost a year and watch as her poetic writing has flourished. This poem is one of my favorites. You can’t help falling in love with the tree and her magnificent leaves even if you have never seen one. Bravo Dian!!
I’m a fan too, Cheryl 🙂 Thanks for writing!
Beautiful symbol of the cycle of life, continuous rebirth with each new season- leaves turn colors and drop, new growth and stronger roots each year we return home.
Congratulations Dian for both book deals!!!
So true, Srei, a beautiful symbol of life! Thank you for your comment. ❤
Dian has been writing forever. She writes from the heart and imagination. You will always feel her life and how she grew up in her words your imagination will be able to picture it all and possibly even feel the way she felt. I like her eclectic style and the way she can put emotions into palatable words. Well-deserved recognition, Way to go Dian!
❤